


our grandfathers' war

by silver-sparks (Madame_Marauder)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Not Reylo, actually my attempt to keep tros the same WITHOUT reylo, tros spoilers!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 11:02:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21897052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madame_Marauder/pseuds/silver-sparks
Summary: she would have wanted you to live.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	our grandfathers' war

"She would have wanted you to live," Rey says, standing. It rings as truth in her bones, as much as she doesn't want it to. Certainty fills her veins, and she can't reject it, can't take back her healing.

Kylo stares up at her, uncomprehending.

She looks at him for a moment, drenched by the seawater and still gasping for air, and then turns and runs to his ship. She is far, far too dangerous. She can't let herself hurt the galaxy more than it's already hurting.

There's one place that she can go, and one way to make herself stay there.

As soon as she moves to throw the lightsaber, a hand catches her wrist, blue and translucent. Rey looks over, and in the Force it's like staring into a sun, bright and Light and blinding.

"I spent a lot of time working on that thing," the sun says, through the lips of a young man near her age. "Maybe don't throw it in the fire, eh? Wouldn't break anything but the metal, anyway."

She stumbles back, and drops the saber on the ground between them. "Who are you?"

The sun-man smiles_ . _ "You know already, I think. I'm told that the family resemblance is stunning; something about the hair, perhaps, or the nose?"

Oh.

"You know, back in the desert, we'd say that what you did for my grandson would make for a life-debt," he adds. "Your sands were the same as mine, I think. But you didn't do it expecting repayment. So why have you run here, Rey?"

"I'm a danger," she manages. "I'm staying here, like Luke did. I'm ending all this."

Anakin Skywalker sighs, and shakes his head. His eyes seem incredibly old. "Because you're a Palpatine? Rey, you might be his granddaughter, but Leia is _ my _ daughter, and she has _ never _ fallen to the Dark. Blood does not define you- she knew your heritage, and so did Luke. You and Ben, you don't need to mirror your grandfathers. Your choices are all yours."

Rey stares, and then slowly sinks down to sit on a nearby rock. "They knew? They knew, but they still trained me?"

"Yes," Anakin agrees, sitting down across from her. He shimmers with otherworldly light. "They did not fear you, and you should not fear yourself. The actions of your blood are not yours. Your true family is out there, and they need you to finish your mission, not hide away here."

"I burnt my ship," she cries. "I burnt the wayfinder, it's gone!"

Anakin's smile widens. "Sith artefacts are hardier than that, Rey. And Luke would never damage his precious X-Wing."

She pulls the old fighter out of the water, and transmits coordinates to the Resistance. If they need to find this damn planet, the least she can do is lead them there.

And then, when she's backed between a fall and a hard place, clear eyes look at her from across the Force.

A life-debt, she thinks.

He nods.

Of course it doesn't go well. Of course it ends in pain and lightning and the life being drained from them both.

Palpatine casts his lightning up into the skies, and she can hear her friends and allies silently screaming in fear and pain. She has to stop it. She _ must _stop it.

_ "Rey. The Force surrounds you. Rise. Let it lift you. Let it guide you. Rise." _

She thinks of the transport, of the blood in her veins, of the ghost of a sun.

If this is her birthright, so be it.

She calls her second teacher's lightsaber to her hand, then reaches up to the sky and calls the lightning down on herself. It's agony; it's hate and fear and pain far beyond the physical. But she can take it. She can bear it. She is Jedi; she will protect.

Palpatine lets up on the initial blast as soon as she seizes control, but she calls her first teacher's blade and reflects the second volley with the twinned blades.

"I am all the Sith!" he shouts, doubling down on his attack.

"And I am all the Jedi!" Rey roars back, and drives his own lightning forward to meet him. It's an awful thing to watch, as he refuses to let up on his attack and then suffers the death he'd meant to inflict on her.

Not that he'd failed in that, she reflects, as his screams fade away and she feels her legs give out.

"Oh, young one," someone says, and a gentle, not-quite-tangible hand caresses her face. The faces swim above her, but there are many, blue and solemn. 

"Join us so soon, I hoped you would not."

"She won't," a familiar voice insists, and Rey hazily registers a bright sun above her left shoulder. "Desert law for the deserted child."

Everything fades, for a moment, but then she's vividly aware of solid arms around her, and her eyes fly open.

Ben Solo stares back at her.

"She would have wanted you to live," he says, placing a hand on her cheek. "They need you."

And then he collapses.

Rey can't do more than hyperventilate when his body disappears, but there's a fleeting ghostly touch on her shoulder, and explosions in the sky, and immediate problems.

**Author's Note:**

> lmao i dont like kyle so he still dies whoops


End file.
